They
somewhat resemble their brokers, who trade for immense sums without
having any capital."
Goldsmith did not finish there. His observations on the Continent
served him, with a frugality that he did not otherwise practise,
at least thrice. He used them in the "Inquiry into Polite Learning,"
he used them in the story of the Philosophic Vagabond in the _Vicar
of Wakefield_, and still again in "The Traveller". This is the summary
of Holland in that poem:--
To men of other minds my fancy flies,
Embosom'd in the deep where Holland lies.
Methinks her patient sons before me stand,
Where the broad ocean leans against the land,
And, sedulous to stop the coming tide,
Lift the tall rampire's artificial pride.
Onward, methinks, and diligently slow,
The firm connected bulwark seems to grow;
Spreads its long arms amidst the watery roar,
Scoops out an empire, and usurps the shore.
While the pent ocean, rising o'er the pile,
Sees an amphibious world beneath him smile;
The slow canal, the yellow-blossom'd vale,
The willow-tufted bank, the gliding sail,
The crowded mart, the cultivated plain,
A new creation rescued from his reign.
Thus, while around the wave-subjected soil
Impels the native to repeated toil,
Industrious habits in each bosom reign,
And industry begets a love of gain.
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